Q. Re- question 1836 above. Are all blueberries created equal? Are wild blueberries the same as common berries?
A. Canada is the world's largest producer of “lowbush blueberries,” which is another name for wild blueberries. Most are grown commercially in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. They are native to Eastern North America and grow best on treeless land or on land that has been burned over. Wild blueberries are unusual because growers do not plant them, but instead manage wild stands that spread naturally by means of underground runners. (Agr.gc.ca).
The fresh blueberries stocked in grocery stores west of Quebec tend to be cultivated highbush blueberries, which are planted specifically for harvesting. Those cultivated blueberries are larger in size than the lowbush wild blueberries (vaccinium angustifolium) that grow naturally on the rolling hills of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec. There’s also a tremendous difference in flavor profiles, as the smaller wild blueberries tend to have a sweeter, tangier, more intensely “blueberry” taste than their cultivated cousins. (readersdigest.ca)
Wild blueberries are widely available and sold also as an organic product in stores like Walmart and Costco.
Although, from most of the available pictures online, this lowbush seems to be smaller than nine inches, Wikipedia quotes that Vaccinium angustifolium is a low spreading deciduous shrub growing 5 to 60 cm (2 to 24 in) tall.
Vesen Brocho (Ch. 22: p. 393) rules that most wild blueberries grow on lower bushes and therefore their brocho is haadama. (See also Hakhel, Sivan 18 and others).
Horav Shlomo Miller's Shlit'a opinion is that the brocho on wild blueberries is haadama.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit'a
Important Numbers
